German Firm Set To Market Vietnam Film Archives
HANOI - A German company has signed a landmark deal with
Vietnam to be the sole worldwide distributor of the communist nation's film
archives, an executive said on Thursday.
Alexander van Dulmen, managing director of Berlin-based Progress
Film-Verleih GmbH, said the deal would give his firm access to all
state-owned film archives, which could then be sold to broadcasters and
film-makers.
He said the deal, which was signed Thursday with the official Vietnam Film
Institute, would make available footage of Vietnam which had never been
seen before.
Available footage would include the wars against the French and
Americans, as well as a unique film of the death of former revolutionary
leader Ho Chi Minh and film shot by the former South Vietnam, he said.
There are a number of large official archives in the country, including those
owned by the military and the communist party, which van Dulman said
would probably become available.
He added that the former North Vietnam had more than 130 cameramen
working at the front during the Vietnam War against the Americans and
the U.S.-backed Saigon regime.
``We can use that material for a completely new view of the war,'' he told
reporters. ``For example, you can really see the Viet Cong planning and
carrying out an attack in the jungle, it's really live, it's not acted.''
Progress Film-Verleih rose from the ashes of the communist former East
Germany's state film production company, and van Dulmen said Hanoi
saw the new deal as a way to renew ties with its old ally. Progress also
cares for the former East Germany's archives.
``There are many people in (Vietnam's) film industry who studied in East
Germany, and they have many links,'' he said.
``We have to build trust. We have to work with respect and of course be
responsible to take care of the history of this country.''
Van Dulmen said that apart from archives at the Film Institute most other
stores were in poor condition and deteriorating. Only about 30 percent of
the huge collection of historical footage was cataloged, he added.
With few funds available in Vietnam to preserve existing archives van
Dulmen said the deal offered the country a commercial way to save the
material.
Reuters - January 15, 1999.
|